The loss of life and of human rights in the border region is immeasurable. The task of addressing this multifaceted issue has been undertaken in part by a non-gubernatorial organization.

Anthropologist Mercades Doretti of the The Argentinian Forensic Anthropology Team, addressed members of the audience and the panel on the process of identifying female bodies found in Mexico.

“In June of 2005 we signed an agreement with the chief prosecutor of Chihuahua to work on the remains of the women who were not yet identified and on the cases in which families expressed doubt in the information they had received and to provide information about the cause of death in cases where this was possible,” said Doretti.

            Various U.S. and Mexican organizations such as the Ford Foundation, the Oak Foundation, and the State Prosecutor’s Office of Chihuahua fund the project, which began in July 2005. The team consisted of over 500 archeologists, anthropologists, lawyers, personnel from local NGO’s, and computer experts working with the same U.S. based laboratory that worked on the September 11th cases.

            “To this date we have been able to recover the bodies of 48 from mass and individual graves in the Ciudad Juarez area,” said Doretti. “In Chihuahua we have been working on recovering the remains of 11 possible female remains, another has already been identified.”